In the wake of Disney World, my kids were interested enough in the Tron ride that they wanted to check out the Tron movie. It’s been a long time since I watched it, and I had no idea how something that seemed so awesome as a kid in the 80s would hold up today. Disney+ was all too ready to show us.
The answer? Not too well.
It turns out, an awful lot of the success of the movie relies on the “WOW” factor of the computer graphics. And what earned you a WOW in 1982 doesn’t not earn much more than a yawn (if that) all these years later.
Don’t get me wrong: the concepts are still cool. It’s a guy from the real world going around inside video games. Light bikes! Electric frisbees! Tanks!! And there are cool nods to Users and Programs. The bones are strong. But the implementation stumbles. A lot.
For one thing, it was incredibly difficult for my family to follow. I think some of this is because the characters themselves look awfully alike inside the video game world. The uniforms are similar (other than color), and because they went with a sort of washed out look for the people themselves, it’s hard to tell the difference. But that’s not the only reason. Honestly, it felt to me like there was more story in the real world, and it got left on the editing floor in a rush to get into the video game world. Which I get. The video game world is the cool stuff, and that’s what made the movie successful. But when you’re trying to figure out what in the world is going on, you’ve got to watch pretty closely for all of it to make sense, especially when the movie throws the viewers into the video game world with no real warning at the beginning.
There were pieces of the movie that were great. When it really dove into the video game battling, I enjoyed it a lot. But the story that tied all of that together left a fair bit to desire. Plot holes or lack of explanation just got in the way of me being able to sit back and have a good time.
Should you watch it?
I can’t really recommend it, to tell the truth. Not for everyone. If you’re interested in where CGI started, then 100% you should check this movie out. But if that’s not your thing, and your kids want to know why this movie was so cool? You’re probably better off just telling it looked awesome back in the day, but movies have come a long way since then. Sorry for the bad news . . .